Lifestyle

‘Deafness – it’s part of who you are’: one man’s journey to inspire


Travel blogger Ed Rex has had plenty of memorable moments in his career to date, from snorkelling in Fiji to marvelling at the Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. But one of the most memorable was when he accidentally signed up for a job at a nudist resort in Australia.

“The plan was to work at resorts in return for bed and breakfast,” he says with a grin. “The resort sent me a nice email saying they were looking forward to me coming and would pick me up – and by the way, we’re nudists: is that OK with you? And I had to be nude as well. That was a challenge! I’ve certainly never done naked gardening in the UK …”

Rex was born deaf, but he’s never let that stand in the way of his determination to experience life to the full. He studied environmental biology and science at the University of Leeds and worked in the sector for several years before jacking in his job to see the world.

“I’d always had a love of travel but I didn’t have anyone to travel with, and I didn’t have the confidence to travel on my own,” he says. “Then, just before I left my last job, I had an operation to insert a cochlear implant into my right ear, as the hearing in that ear had gone completely. I was struggling to be involved in social situations, and feeling pretty down.”

While the operation isn’t the preferred choice for all, for Rex it made a huge difference. “I was a completely different person,” he says. “Suddenly, I had so much confidence. So off I went, around the world. That was the start of the travel blogging, too. I realised I had a love of storytelling.”

Rex charts all his travels on his blog, rexyedventures.com (strapline: “Adventures of a handsome backpacker travelling the unexpected”), which quickly caught the attention of major brands, including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, MyDestination and Hotel.info. These days he’s a well-known figure on the travel blogger scene. He’s often asked to go on trips and to review accommodation and experiences – recent adventures include quad biking in Australia and two weeks in South Africa. And he’s written widely about his experiences as a deaf traveller too, on rexyedventures and his Deaf Traveller blog.

Ed Rex, Guardian Labs Microsoft/John Lewis



There have been challenges, of course, as well as some some odd attitudes. “I remember one Australian guy saying: ‘Can I catch deafness from you?’ which was bizarre! I took out my hearing aid, which I use for my left ear, and said: ‘Quick, quick, the germs are on the loose!’ But most of the time, it’s fine. Sometimes people have questions but they are afraid to ask, so you have to start the conversation yourself. For me, deafness is not a taboo subject and you can make fun of yourself. It’s part of who you are.”

But odd attitudes like the earlier one are rare, he points out. “Most of the time it’s just about looking after yourself and making sure you’re not in a situation where you could be vulnerable. I’ve always felt quite safe. And if something happens – like being dropped off by a bus in Thailand in the middle of nowhere – it’s fine if you don’t lose your cool and get stressed.”

Rex is a keen user and advocate of better accessibility tech – he’s passionate about the need to get British transport right, particularly train companies that still use tannoys to make announcements. He’s pleased that Microsoft’s most recent software is taking steps in the right direction.

“I particularly like the visual notification feature, which sets the screen to flash, rather than making a sound, and the accessibility checker on Word, Excel and Powerpoint,” he says. “Subtitling is great: it’s a massive thing to be able to turn on subtitles in Powerpoint,” he says, adding that it gets better every time you use it.

“You can get subtitles for every video on the web, too. And I’ve used Skype for yonks, but I never realised before that you can turn on subtitles for every single Skype call, and you can download the transcript at the end of it. That’s so good for business meetings.”

In the future, Rex is looking forward to more trips and continuing to use his platform to inspire others and break down stereotypes, particularly among young people.

“Deafness is associated with people who are old! But there are so many deaf kids who don’t have any role models. And there’s a wide spectrum of deafness, too: people who use sign language, people who have mild hearing loss and so on. I want to say: you can do this. If I can do it, you can do it. It’s all about standing up and believing in yourself,” he says.

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